James nods his head as he follows him around the outside of the wall.
“It doesn’t seem to be guarded,” says Jiron suspiciously.
“We’re in the heart of the empire, who would be dumb enough to break into a noble’s estate here?” James reasons.
“You may be right,” Jiron agrees. He gets close to the wall and jumps up, grabbing the top as he pulls himself up and then quickly scans the area on the other side of the wall for guards.
“See anything?” James asks.
“No, it looks clear,” he tells him from the top. Reaching down, he says, “Give me your hand and I’ll help you up.”
James takes his hand and Jiron pulls him to the top of the wall. They quickly drop down to the other side and squat for a few seconds in the shadows to observe what’s going on. The area between the wall and the manor house is dark and they don’t see anything moving. With Jiron in the lead, they make their way across the open lawn to the side of the house near a darkened window.
Jiron silently moves to the window and peers inside, but is unable to make out anything in the dark. With great caution, he tests the window and finds it locked. Taking out one of his knives, he slides it in the narrow space between the two sides and lifts the latch. Replacing his knife in his belt, he pulls the window open and then quickly slips inside.
Reaching his hand down, he helps James in through the window and then closes it once again. Jiron begins moving around, trying to find the door when a soft glow begins to fill the room. Looking back, he sees James there with the glowing orb in his hands. The orb is barely giving off any light at all, just enough so they can make out the details of the room and won’t be stumbling around.
“Thanks,” Jiron whispers.
Grinning, James replies quietly, “No problem.”
The light shows that they’re in a study of some kind with but a single door leading out. Jiron moves over to it and places his ear against the door, listening for any sound coming from the other side. After a minute, he shakes his head and says, “Nothing.”
“Good,” James says.
Jiron slowly opens the door and then shuts it again quietly as he turns to James. “They’re not going to come looking for magic because of that, are they?” he asks, pointing to the glowing orb in James’ hand.
“I wouldn’t think so,” he replies. “It’s hardly using any magic at all.”
With a brief nod, Jiron again opens the door and a dim light comes through it. James cancels the orb and it disappears as Jiron opens the door wider. He cautiously looks down the hallway to either side. He turns back to James and in a barely audible whisper, says, “There’s a light down to the right, to the left is dark.”
“Try the left?” he suggests.
Jiron nods in agreement and then he again checks the hallway. Not seeing anyone, he opens the door wider and silently exits the room to the hallway, making his way down toward the left.
Once he’s out of the room, James follows and then closes the door behind them. He can hear muffled voices coming from the room down the hallway to the right where the light is emanating from, but is too far away to be able to make any of it out.
Jiron stays to the left side of the hallway as he quietly makes his way down to the next door on the right. He pauses a moment as he listens at the door. Not hearing anything, he proceeds further down the hallway. They pass two doors facing each other and after a moment’s listening at each, Jiron continues past them.
A little ahead of them they see light emanating around the corner where the hallway turns to the right. Jiron turns to James and whispers, “Wait here.”
James nods his head and then watches as Jiron silently walks to the edge of the corridor and peers around it. After only a brief look, he brings his head back quickly and then motions James closer. “There’s a guard standing in the hallway about ten feet down. There’s a torch in the wall near him.”
“Should we take him out do you think?” James asks.
“If we do, we may be alerting the whole place that we’re here,” Jiron replies. “He may not even be guarding Delia and the others.”
“Can’t think of any other reason to post a guard in a hallway,” reasons James. “I say we’ve got to do it.”
“Can you do it?” Jiron asks. “I would need to be closer to take him out before he could raise the alarm.”
“Yeah,” James replies, not liking the fact of having to kill someone like this, but what choice does he have. He removes a slug from his belt and silently moves to the corner and peers around. Seeing the guard there, he gathers his thoughts before stepping into the hallway. Before the guard even realizes he’s there, he releases the magic and throws.
The slug flies straight and true, striking him in the head. The guard sags to the floor unconscious. “Come on!” James says to Jiron as he hurries to where the guard lies on the floor.
“He’s not dead!” Jiron exclaims when he realizes the guard lying there is only unconscious. A sizeable goose egg of a bump shows where the slug had hit him in the temple.
“I held back a little,” admits James. “I didn’t want to kill him that way.”
The guard, as it turns out, had been standing in front of stairs leading down.
“Let’s put him in one of the rooms we passed,” Jiron suggests.
“Alright,” agrees James. They lift him up and carry him back to the corner where they pause a moment as Jiron peers down the hallway. Seeing the coast is clear, they go to the first door on the right and open it slowly as they look inside. It’s a bedroom, but empty and doesn’t looks as if it’s been used for some time. They deposit the guard on the bed and then bind and gag him. Once the guard is secured, Jiron returns to the door and opens it a crack as he makes sure the hallway still remains empty. Finding that it is, they leave the room, closing the door behind them.
They quickly make it back to the stairs where Jiron takes the lead as they begin to descend to the lower level. At the bottom of the stairs, they find a door that’s slightly ajar. Jiron cautiously opens it further and peers around to the other side where he sees an empty corridor leading away from the door. He opens it further and motions for James to follow him through.
Following the corridor with James right behind, they pass two other closed doors on their way, pausing momentarily to listen at each. Not hearing anything, he continues down to the door at the end, where light can be seen coming through the cracks from the other side.
As they draw near to the door, they’re able to hear voices speaking from the other side. “…tell me!” one voice yells and then they hear the sound of someone being slapped hard.
“Again,” the voice says and then a female can be heard crying out in pain.
“Delia!” Jiron cries as he races for the door. James readies a slug as Jiron hits the door with his shoulder, causing it to open and swing into the room, slamming hard against the wall. With both knives ready, he quickly surveys the room.
It takes but a moment to realize what’s been happening, Roland, Scar and Potbelly are sitting along one wall, hands chained to the wall. Delia lies stretched spread-eagled upon a table, her hands and feet secured with ropes to the corners.
A well dressed man stands next to the table with another whom James can only believe is a dealer in pain. They’ve been torturing Delia! Two guards spring into action and immediately draw their swords as they move to engage Jiron.
“Jiron!” Potbelly cries out from where he sits against the wall when the door bursts open and sees him enter.
The two guards close with Jiron, one falling when a slug strikes him in the face blasting out the back of his head. Jiron parries a thrust from the other with one knife and then strikes out with the other, catching the guard in the neck, severing the jugular. Grabbing his neck, the guard tries to stop the blood spewing forth as he stumbles and falls to the floor. Jiron kicks out his foot on his way down and can hear a snap when the man’s neck breaks.
The well dressed man has h
is sword out and has the edge lying across Delia’s throat. “Enough!” he cries. “Or she’s dead.”
Jiron stands there, seething with impotent anger. Unable to do aught else, he stops.
James sees a ring of keys on one of the guards and reaches down to pick them up when the well dressed man says, “Don’t, or she dies.”
“It seems we’re in a pickle here,” James tells him as he straightens back up. “We’re not about to leave without them,” he says as he gestures to Delia and the others, “and if you cut her throat you’re a dead man.”
He just stands there with his sword at her throat, considering the situations. The torturer next to him says with authority, “You dare not hurt the High Lord Cytok. He’s the right hand to the Emperor himself!”
“Shut up you fool!” Lord Cytok yells to the man. Turning back to James and Jiron, he says, “You two, get over there next to the others.” He nods his head indicating they should go over to where Scar, Potbelly and Roland are sitting along the wall. He menaces Delia with his sword until they begin to move over there.
Delia watches them with her eyes, fear of the sword at her throat preventing her from doing or saying anything.
“James,” Jiron says quietly as they move closer to where the others sit, “do something.”
“I’m working on it,” he replies.
“Go get Kirtch and Prul,” he says to the torturer who then moves quickly to the door.
James concentrates on Delia’s exposed neck and then releases the magic. “Go ahead,” he says to Jiron, “he can’t hurt her now.”
Trusting in James, Jiron is up in a flash and rushes toward Lord Cytok.
The torturer breaks into a run as he races through the door and begins screaming on his way to the stairs.
Lord Cytok runs his sword across Delia’s throat but it only slides along an invisible barrier encasing her throat. Shocked at seeing the ineffectiveness of his sword, he turns to Jiron and prepares to defend himself.
“We need him alive,” James says. “We’ll never make it out without him.”
With a slight nod, Jiron closes with Lord Cytok. Deflecting a thrust with one knife, he strikes out with other but Lord Cytok dances backward and the knife misses by inches. The battle is joined.
James gets the keys from the dead guard and goes over to free Scar.
“Thanks, James,” Potbelly says. “We were hoping you might show up.”
“Yeah man,” Scar says when James had freed him.
He gives Scar the keys to remove the other’s shackles before going over to Delia. He takes out his knife and cuts through her bonds. He helps her to her feet just as Roland comes over to assist her. Delia stands up, a little bit shaky and James asks, “Are you alright?”
“I’ll be fine,” she assures him.
Scar and Potbelly have taken the guards’ swords and stand to the door to keep a look out. Scar turns back to the others and cries, “We’ve got company!”
Suddenly, a crash and James looks over to see Lord Cytok’s sword lying on the ground and Jiron with his knife to his throat.
“Tell your men out there to drop their weapons and come inside,” Jiron orders him.
A man from the hallway hollers something to Lord Cytok.
Jiron begins pressing the point of his dagger into his throat and says, “One of us understands your language, so don’t do anything stupid.”
He hollers back to his men.
Jiron looks to Roland and asks, “Did he tell them to drop their weapons?”
Roland shakes his head and replies, “They asked if he was okay and he told them he’s okay, but held at knifepoint.”
“Tell them to drop their weapons and come inside, NOW!” Jiron insists as a drop of blood wells from where the point of the knife had punctured the skin.
Lord Cytok hollers to his men and James glances to Roland who nods his head.
Soon they hear weapons falling to the ground and then his men, four of them, step into the room. The torturer isn’t among them.
“Where’s the other guy!” Jiron demands when he realizes he’s not among them.
Roland asks and when one of the men replies, Lord Cytok begins laughing.
“What’s so funny,” Jiron asks.
“He’s gone to raise the alarm,” he tells him. “Soon this whole area will be swarming with soldiers.” With a satisfied smirk on his face, he stares at James.
“We’ll never make it out!” Potbelly exclaims.
“Maybe,” says James, “if we’re fast enough.”
“Secure them to the wall,” James tells Scar and Potbelly who start taking Lord Cytok’s guards and placing them in the chains that had once been theirs. “Gag them too,” he advises them.
“Right,” Scar says as he picks up the most dirty, disgusting rags available, taking great pleasure in stuffing them in their mouths.
“Now, milord,” James says to Lord Cytok. “I hate to ask but please lie down on the table here.”
“Never!” he says adamantly.
Once Scar and Potbelly have the guards secured, they come over and force Lord Cytok onto the table, securing his arms and legs to the restraints. “Use a cleaner rag for his gag,” James tells them, “after all, he is a Lord.”
When he’s secured and gagged, James says, “You guys go on up and see what’s going on while Roland and I help Delia up the stairs.”
“I can walk,” she says as the others run down the hallway and up the stairs. Roland puts one of her arms across his shoulders to help support her. For despite her assertion that she can walk, her legs are a little unsteady. With James in the lead, they make their way to the stairs.
When they reach the top, they see Jiron racing back toward them. “Nothing yet,” he tells them.
“Good,” says James as they continue down the hallway, going back the way they had come. Moving past the room where they saw the light earlier, James notices it’s empty now. Most likely whoever had been in there is now back in the room with Lord Cytok, chained to the wall.
A little further past the room, the hallway opens up onto the foyer where they see Scar and Potbelly looking out the front door. Scar turns at their approach and says “It looks clear out there.”
“Then let’s move,” Jiron urges as they leave the house and run toward the gate. The guard that had been there earlier is absent, most likely sitting in the basement with his fellows. Potbelly reaches the gate first and opens it. He moves through to the other side and looks for anyone in the vicinity. Not finding anyone, he motions for the others to pass through to the street.
They begin running, making their way down the road a short ways before they see a large group of armed men running toward Lord Cytok’s estate.
They duck down a side alley and remain motionless as they wait for them to race past. Several brown robes could be seen among the running soldiers.
“Mages,” James says once they’re past. “How are we going to get out of here now?”
“I don’t know,” Scar replies. “But we better hurry before it’s too late.
Jiron looks out on the street and sees the way the soldiers had come is clear for the moment. They step out of the alley and race down the street away from Lord Cytok’s estate, hoping to escape the city before it’s too late.
Chapter Nineteen
The streets begin to fill as more soldiers and guards race toward Lord Cytok’s estate. Having had to duck into another alley to avoid detection, they wait for the squad of men to pass. Then James spreads his hands wide as ten small floating spheres appear before him. With a wave of his hand, they begin floating away in different directions.
“What’re those going to do?” Jiron asks. “Aren’t they going to attract any mages in the area?”
“That’s the idea,” replies James. “Hopefully they’ll be so intent on tracking down what they think are rogue mages, that we’ll be able to slip though, unnoticed.”
“Let’s hope so,” Jiron says. Once the spheres have lef
t the alley, he takes one more look up and down. Not seeing anyone in the vicinity, he reenters the street with the others right behind. He keeps them to one side of the street as they quickly make their way to the gate leading out of the inner walled area.
As they approach the gate to the outer area, they see a squad of soldiers with a mage stationed there. The mage is looking down the street they are approaching on but has yet to detect them.
“Damn!” James exclaims when he sees them. They duck down an alley where they stop to determine what they’re going to do.
“Now what?” Delia asks.
“I’m thinking,” he replies as they pause for a moment.
“Think faster,” Scar says as he points to several squads of soldiers entering through the gates. The mage there gives them directions as they move past and the squads split up as each moves in a different direction.
A squad turns to head in their direction and looks to be heading for the alley they’re hiding in. “Move!” Jiron urges as he leads them further into the alley, away from the approaching soldiers.
“The whole army is on the move to find us,” Potbelly says from the rear.
“We invaded the home and humiliated a very powerful and important leader,” Roland explains. “They’ll not let us just walk away.”
The alley ends at another cross street. To their right, the street approaches the wall before intersecting with another street running perpendicular to it. A three story building has been built right up against the wall. James takes a closer look and realizes the top of it is only several feet from the top of the wall.
Jiron glances up to where James is looking and grins, “That’ll work.” Making sure the street is currently clear of soldiers, they leave the alley and run down the street to the building. It looks to be someone’s residence. He goes to the door and tries to open it, but discovers it’s locked. No time for niceties, he kicks it in and the door swings wide, slamming into the wall.
Rushing inside, they quickly close the door behind them. Potbelly moves to a window and looks out. “I don’t think anyone saw us,” he tells the others.
Fires of prophesy ms-2 Page 25